What the Plouffe?!

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President JOE BIDEN and his staffers have taken great pains over the past few years trying to make sure that the public and the media do not normalize DONALD TRUMP and the election denialism that defined his presidency.

So when Biden staffers found out Monday morning that DAVID PLOUFFE — a well-respected BARACK OBAMA alum to whom they often turn for advice — was teaming up with former Trump counselor KELLYANNE CONWAY for a new podcast on the 2024 election, several people inside the West Wing and Wilmington campaign headquarters weren’t thrilled.

“Trump is openly running to rip apart American democracy, and David Plouffe cares so much about stopping him he’s teaming up with the founder of ‘alternative facts’ and a chief Trump enabler to profit off an election he ought to be in the trenches fighting to win,” said a Biden campaign aide, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“This will not end well — maybe this is the real ‘Bowling Green Massacre’ KAC knew was coming all along,” the person snarked.

Other aides to the president begged off discussing the new podcast pairing of the managers of the winning 2008 and 2016 campaigns. Plouffe, they noted, still holds a lot of influence in the Democratic Party, and few were eager to piss him off and risk professional consequences. Some half-heartedly offered a more optimistic view that there could be a benefit to having a top Democratic communicator reaching an audience that didn’t include party diehards.

The Plouffe-Conway partnership has tested the Biden world perception of the role that media should play when addressing Trumpism. The president and his top aides have been vocal about their belief that the press corps should be far more critical in its coverage about threats to democracy and lies about election integrity.

“I have my role” in protecting democracy, Biden said at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month. “But, with all due respect, so do you.”

Conway admitted in her book that Biden won the 2020 election. But she’s also a loyal foot soldier for Trump and was even rumored to be weighing a return to his orbit. That Plouffe would partner with her has bothered some progressives, who argue that it is giving an imprimatur to Trump’s brand of politics.

“It’s important to police the boundary, no matter whether the practical impact is small or large,” said BRIAN BEUTLER, a liberal journalist and author of the “Off Message” newsletter. “There’s something important about stigmatizing people who don’t have a commitment to truth, who were at least sort of willing to go along with Trump’s post-election lies through Jan. 6. It’s just bad practice.”

The flip side of the argument is one that Democrats make in more hushed tones: that the party does, in fact, need to speak to people outside of its echo chamber and, more philosophically, try to understand them.

Some Biden staffers insisted that the Plouffe news hadn’t been all that hot of a topic in their circles. “We have a lot of respect for him and keep in close touch. Everyone knows what his values are. Democrats debate Republicans all the time. This really hasn’t come up much,” said a Biden official who also worked for Obama.

Seasoned Democratic and Republican operatives have collaborated on media projects for eons (former Obama advisers DAVID AXELROD and ROBERT GIBBS co-hosted the political podcast “Hacks on Tap” with Republican political consultant MIKE MURPHY), although joint ventures featuring Trump veterans have been less common.

That may be because those alums have either remained loyal to Trump or become so jaded as to turn into resistance heroes. Conway is among the few who have tried to maintain ties to Trump and credibility with the broader public, no easy feat (as RONNA MCDANIEL can attest after her hiring and immediate firing by NBC).

Still, some Biden aides felt like Plouffe went a step too far. He could have, as some aides suggested, just continued with the podcast he’s hosted in previous election cycles, interviewing mostly Democratic campaign operatives and political reporters along with the occasional Republican. For some in Biden’s orbit, the decision to team up with Conway was an unfortunate home-grown example of the political class’ willingness to abandon their principles when there’s a buck to be made.

Conway, who initially declined to comment, ultimately couldn’t resist. She texted us hours later with her thoughts on the anonymous consternation among Biden aides:

“Imagine your job is ‘communications’ for Joe Biden, who shakes hands with the air and, according to a majority of Americans, lacks the physical and mental sharpness to do the job; or for Kamala Harris, who can’t speak complete, cackle-free sentences without a TelePrompter.”

“Instead of spewing venom in blind quotes against David Plouffe and me, the miserables could tune in or join us on the show. They might learn a thing or two.”

Plouffe also initially declined to comment. But in response to Conway, and minutes before our deadline, he emailed us: “Trump’s mental decline is apparent for all to see — mangling words, talking nonsense and sleeping and farting his way thru a criminal trial. When he’s lucid, he’s extorting oil and gas ceos in return for swampy favors and suggesting pregnant women will be monitored by the state. His return would be an unmitigated disaster … So this podcast will have plenty of punditry but my hope is also the view of practitioners who can talk about mechanics of things like early vote, changes in the electorate and debates and conventions.

“But to be clear, these won’t be kumbaya sessions.”

MESSAGE US — Are you KELSEY DONOHUE, deputy communications director for the first lady? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at [email protected].

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POTUS PUZZLER

What does the Japanese term Bushu-suru — ブッシュする — translate to in English?

(Answer at bottom.)

The Oval

THE FALLOUT: After President Biden laid out a stark warning to Israel Wednesday night — saying that he would halt military aid if it launched a major military invasion into Rafah — Israeli officials reacted with anger and frustration. Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU did not directly address Biden’s comments, but in a video posted to X, he said: “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone.” (It’s been just 15 days since Biden signed an aid package that provides Israel with another $17 billion in defense assistance).

And while some progressives and center-left Dems praised Biden, the president faced backlash from others. As Axios’ BARAK RAVID reports, Democratic pro-Israel megadonor HAIM SABAN wrote an email to Biden aides STEVE RICCHETTI and ANITA DUNN telling them to “not forget there are more Jewish voters who care about Israel than Muslim voters who care about Hamas.”

House Speaker MIKE JOHNSON said he hoped Biden was having a “senior moment,” in an interview with POLITICO. But on Thursday, the White House emphasized he meant every word, our JONATHAN LEMIRE and ALEXANDER WARD report. The White House said Biden could finally threaten Israel ahead of the possible invasion because Hamas has been significantly degraded over seven months of fighting. “The president and his team have been clear for several weeks that we do not support a major ground operation in Rafah,” National Security Council spokesperson JOHN KIRBY said.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by Axios’ BEN GEMAN, who reports that a progressive coalition is giving President Biden a glowing review on his environmental record. In a memo from the pro-Democratic group Climate Power, co-released by over 20 groups, it credits Biden with 320+ “climate, conservation, public health and clean energy actions.”

The youth-led climate group Sunrise Movement — who have publicly criticized Biden over policies such as the approval of the Willow oil project in Alaska — was one of the backers. “President Biden has delivered critical climate action in his first term,” Sunrise campaign director KIDUS GIRMA said in a statement alongside the memo.

Communications director BEN LABOLT and deputy communications director HERBIE ZISKEND shared the piece on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: This piece by WaPo’s LISA REIN, who reports that Veterans Affairs leaders improperly handed out almost $11 million in bonuses to more than 180 senior executives last year, according to a new watchdog report. The bonuses came from funds that Congress earmarked to recruit and keep staff needed to process billions of dollars in veterans’ benefits. When VA Secretary DENIS MCDONOUGH learned of the payments in September, he ordered all executives to repay the VA. But eight months later, bonuses are still being recouped because many who received the bonuses had already spent the money.

A 92-page report from VA Inspector General MICHAEL MISSAL’s office found a “litany of blunders and missing safeguards within VA as its top leaders disregarded rules to hand payouts to all career senior leaders,” Rein writes.

CAMPAIGN HQ

THEY’RE ALL TIKTOKING: The Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA Inc. joined TikTok on Wednesday, and the Biden campaign’s director of digital rapid response, PARKER BUTLER, pulled out the receipts on the Biden campaign’s TikTok launch: “100K+ followers in a day, 10M+ views on launch video, widespread earned media, sustained engagement, creative video formats.” He then provided a screenshot of the MAGA account’s followers: 567.

As for just how fair it is to compare a sitting president’s campaign to one of many Trump super PACs? You can be the judge.

THE BUREAUCRATS

HARD LAUNCH: Former top White House aide MAGGIE GOODLANDER on Thursday launched a bid to succeed Rep. ANNIE KUSTER (D-N.H.), who is retiring at the end of her term. Goodlander, who is married to national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN and was a senior aide to White House deputy chief of staff BRUCE REED as well as top official at the Justice Department, teed off the campaign in a video detailing her New Hampshire roots and the personal impacts the Dobbs decision had on her family.

PERSONNEL MOVES: The White House appointed a new Africa director on the National Security Council, tapping FRANCES Z. BROWN for the position, Semafor’s YINKA ADEGOKE reports. Brown will take over from JUDD DEVERMONT as senior director for African affairs, after Devermont stepped down from the NSC in January to take up a role with an Africa-focused investor firm. Brown previously spent seven years at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and worked under the Obama and Trump administrations.

Agenda Setting

BREAKING DOWN: Hostage and cease-fire negotiations between Israel and Hamas have paused — in part because of the ongoing fighting in Rafah, our ERIN BANCO reports. Hamas is still willing to negotiate a deal, but has largely stepped back from the table since Israel began its military operation into the southern Gazan city.

CIA Director WILLIAM BURNS left the region Thursday after days of trying to negotiate with officials from Egypt, Israel and Qatar to secure a cease-fire and hostage deal. Burns was always scheduled to leave Thursday, but his departure without a deal raises questions on how the fighting will impact the negotiations in coming days.

DESPERATELY NEEDED: The first shipment of humanitarian aid left a port in Cyprus on Thursday morning bound for the U.S.-built pier in Gaza, AP’s JOSEPH KRAUSS and JOSEF FEDERMAN report. It comes months after Biden gave the order to build the temporary pier several miles off the Gaza coast since not enough aid was getting in through land crossings.

What We're Reading

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign (WaPo’s Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow)

Opinion: How the West is helping Ukraine won’t be enough to win (Mark T. Kimmitt for POLITICO Europe)

Senate Races to Pass Bill to Reauthorize F.A.A. and Improve Air Travel (NYT’s Kayla Guo)

The Oppo Book

Alright, so he was no TROY POLAMALU. But Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough could hold his own. As a hard-hitting strong safety on Hall of Fame football coach JOHN GAGLIARDI’s teams at Saint John’s University in Minnesota, McDonough helped the Johnnies to a 28-4-1 record from 1989-1991. Throughout his career, he racked up numbers, with 12 interceptions (11th in SJU history) and 171 tackles in his 38 career games played.

The Star Tribune did a profile of the Stillwater, Minnesota, native back in 2017. “Denis McDonough was never the fastest or most physically imposing player on the football field, his former coach recalls … But he was always the smartest,” the paper wrote after chatting with his high school coach GEORGE THOLE.

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

The phrase, Bushu-suru, means to “do a Bush,” according to The Atlantic. The slang word originated after President GEORGE H.W. BUSH famously fell ill and vomited on Japanese Prime Minister KIICHI MIYAZAWA at a 1992 state dinner in Tokyo.

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Sam Stein and Mike DeBonis.